Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Rany Jazayerli and Jason Anderson on Kansas City radio 810 WHB reported last week on their show "Rany on the Radio" that there's "friction" between both the Hendricks Brothers and the Royals and between the agency and their client, Aaron Crow.

It's not surprising given where things are at for Crow, still unsigned more than a year after he was drafted. But increasingly there's a buzz about the Hendricks agency trying to be "Boras Lite."

(The difference of course is that Boras guys almost always sign, and when they don't, like J.D. Drew and Luke Hochevar, things have worked out pretty darn well for the clients. Aside from Jason Varitek 15 years ago, it's tough to find an example of an unsigned Boras client who regretted his decision.)

If Crow signs for less than what the Nationals offered, it'll cost the Hendricks agency far more in future client fees than it'll cost Crow. The "sources" say that the player's long since had enough.

With Instructional and Arizona Fall League rosters to be announced in the coming weeks, expect Crow to sign very shortly.

The college starting pitchers (non-Strasburg division) drafted in the first part of the first round got deals worth in the range of $2M to $2.42M. Whether the $3M Kansas City supposedly had on the table before the draft remains on the table is probably dependent to some degree on how much of a spaking they want to administer to Crow and his agents.

If Crow is lucky, he'll be able to get a deal from the Royals that he can plausibly, or even implausibly, argue is slightly better what the Nats offered, perhaps with incentives or more money up front. And then he can say that he just didn't want to play for a team that employed Jim Bowden. He's undoubtedly kicking himself every morning these days.

Crow can't deflect any blame for the awful situation he's in on his agent(s). Players hire their own agents. If a player tells his agent that he wants to sign, then he'll sign. It's Crow's career and being a douche and letting your agents screw up your life (although he'll probably sign and be in the big leagues soon and might have a good career and all that) is just irresponsible.